Never, ever apologize for that. This is how you get better and better, by trying "crazy" or "playful" things and then looking at the finished product to determine what is eye pleasing. Good job being adventurous!

On the top photo, you could tweak it just a tiny bit, scoot the clay boat up onto the table, so you only see the vertical grid, not the table frame, get a white piece of paper just in front of your scene and angle it to throw a little bit of light on the front of the chawan, then crop the whole thing to square to emphasize the circles. I think it would look really good.

Thanks GG!(I was actually wondering what you might think and how you might tweek it).I tried cropping a little, just got frustrated, and ran out of time.Gotta run now!Thx again!(perhaps I'll try to play more based on your suggestions, and then post on the 'how to photo...' thread; have to happen later tho, another day).

A few words about my very first impression of the Kaoru - when I first opened the can, very fresh, nutty, and slightly chocolatey aromas - yay! Upon adding the hot water, and first few whisking motions, nicely nutty. As I whisked more and finished, an ocean-like, earthy seaweed aroma (not my fav aroma). Not much sweetness. I wasn't meticulous in my prep, just intuitive today due to time. I'll experiment with water temp and amount of matcha moving forward.Cheers!ps - the wonderful chawan is created by Robert Fornell, aka Ronin Ceramurai, the soft matt black, ash glazed "rabbit fur". I simply love the look and especially the feel of this chawan in EVERY way. This chawan called to me strongly today.

I'm loving all the Chawan displayed in this thread, but I can't view it when one of my roommates is around, as I showed him one and he said " I'd love to eat cereal in that!" And I told him how milk and cereal shouldn't touch one of these, now anytime I talk about any sort of tea ware he talks about using it with cereal

Thankfully, my sweetheart is very respectful of the chawan - I even got her a Jayzo Strommen red, and she quite likes it. There's never gonna be milk and cereal in chawan around here. If a guest, say a family member, ever makes that mistake, there's gonna be trouble. JB - interesting thought. At this point in my chadogu and chanoyu development (if I can even call it that ), my focus has been on chawan. With your post, I am becoming more aware now of chaire. Hadn't really considered them before - you've perhaps planted a seed.I haven't been drawn to natsume at all. Are chaire similar? How are they different?I tend to be exacting in how I store my matcha - vacuum sealing it each morning and then refrigerating until next day. Not sure how chaire fit into this, but then I am but a humble student and one who simply very much enjoys chawan and matcha.Thank you all!

Well, remember, natsume are not for storage. The serving size is placed into the natsume prior to the tea ceremony. I have several, and would never store matcha in one, simply not designed for this purpose.

That was my understanding, and since I don't perform ceremony (not that I could, I absolutely couldn't, I've never even actually experienced it yet as a participant - it is VERY high on my list of things I highly desire to do however), then it seems rediculously inconvenient to me to use natsume (though I have one, came with that black chawan in the 'matcha starter kit' that was my first some while back).So are chaire for storage then, whereas natsume are a formal vessel for temporary transport and holding in ceremony?